Banks have processed more than 97% of their huge backlog of complaints about Payment Protection Insurance (PPI).

After losing a High Court test case in April they were told to deal with 200,000 complaints which they had put on hold pending the hearing’s outcome. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) gave them until the end of August to either offer refunds, or reject the complaints. Fewer than 6,000 of the backlog are now outstanding.

Timescales for new complaints

A large number of fresh complaints have still been coming in to the banks, encouraged by the widespread publicity surrounding their legal defeat. The FSA has said that new complaints generated since April must have been processed by 1 September 2011. Fresh cases received after that date, but before 31 December, must be dealt with in 12 weeks.

From January 2012, the banks will have to go back to the normal eight-week timetable for responding to customers’ complaints. The FSA revealed this week that the top 16 PPI sellers had paid refunds of £215m in the first half of the year for mis-selling the insurance, with nearly half of that being handed out in May and June alone.

New complaints surging

Complaints data published by individual banks in the past week has highlighted how they are being besieged by tens of thousands of disgruntled customers. At RBS and NatWest in the first half of the year, PPI gripes made up 31% of all NatWest complaints and 47% of those to RBS. These pushed total NatWest complaints up 24% to 147,109 and RBS complaints up 27% to 68,414. Last week, Barclays revealed it had received 73,000 PPI complaints in the first half of the year and predicted they would keep on rising in the second half of 2011. Lloyds also said recently that its overall insurance complaints had shot up to 202,384 in the first half of the year, of which PPI was the biggest part.

Making a claim

“Making a refund application against a bank or other large financial institution can be a daunting prospect, which is why for some people it is much better to seek help from an organisation like Brunel Franklin, rather than struggle on and be left to try and work out the details for yourself,” said Sally Bowyer, Managing Director of Brunel Franklin. “We operate a no-win-no-fee service and there is nothing to pay until your case is successfully won and the vendor has paid out.”

Learn more about PPI refunds and find out if you could apply for a refund today! Visit the website www.brunelfranklin.com or call Brunel Franklin, free, on 0800 051 54 51